Chapter 169: The Cross-dressing Big Shot and *Zhiyin Manke*

In the following days, the company's various affairs proceeded in an orderly manner.

Xia Yu was also busy. Besides handling company matters and transcribing *The Qin Empire*, he added another task: planning for the comic magazine, including designing comic characters and outlining the main plot.

These tasks were simple for him. The magazine's planning could be copied directly from previous models. As for drawing comic characters and outlining the plot, he found it straightforward.

In his previous life, many influential figures had skills beyond their main professions. For instance, a financial tycoon who was a fan of piano and played exceptionally well, or a military arms dealer with a refined taste for drawing, especially sketching. Despite his cold exterior, he was very skilled in this art form after decades of practice.

Besides these, there were those who loved racing, diving, fishing, singing, and even cross-dressing.

When Xia Yu discovered the memory of such a cross-dressing big shot, he was initially shocked, feeling goosebumps all over his body. It was quite unexpected!

These big shots had their own peculiar hobbies, and now Xia Yu had access to all of them. 

Therefore, with the military arms dealer's sketching skills in his memory, Xia Yu could draw comic characters with incredible speed. As for outlining the plot, it was a piece of cake for him, given his novel-writing abilities. With the writing prowess of the network novel master Ling Yun, creating outlines was exceptionally easy.

Moreover, the outlines were not his original creations but simplified versions.

Once the characters were drawn and the main plot outline was ready, he could hand them over to his subordinates to flesh out the storyline and create the comics. Even though different writers might create slightly different plots, as long as the framework and main storyline were consistent, the differences in details would not matter much.

After all, Xia Yu didn't want to spend a lifetime drawing comics himself—his time was too valuable to waste on such laborious tasks!

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After sorting out the details, the first step was to finalize the comic magazine's plan, starting with its name and positioning.

The magazine's name was decided: *Zhiyin Manke*.

For the magazine's positioning, Xia Yu planned to adopt the same positioning as the previous *Zhiyin Manke*. Since it had proven successful and aligned with Xia Yu's own ideas, he saw no reason to change it.

In his previous life, *Zhiyin Manke* adhered to the principles of prioritizing stories, humor, public appeal, and real-life flavor. It was divided into four sections: "Cute," "Fantasy," "Sharp," and "Burning," with the goal of becoming the top comic magazine in China.

The magazine's essence was "Youthful dreams and youthful love!"

In his previous life, *Zhiyin Manke* became popular rapidly within a year, continually innovating in both format and content. Three years later, it became a rising star in Chinese comic magazines.

The key to its success was its focus on a current style of Chinese comics: light-hearted, humorous, easy to understand, focusing on life and growth, and exuding warmth and youthfulness.

Xia Yu was particularly fond of *Zhiyin Manke*'s essence!

Now, let's talk about the magazine's development path.

*Zhiyin Manke* was first published in January 2006 as a monthly magazine. By September 2007, it switched to a bi-weekly format, and in October 2008, it became a weekly magazine. By the end of 2008, its monthly circulation had exceeded one million copies. In October 2009, it became a weekly publication.

So, it took *Zhiyin Manke* three years and nine months to transition from a startup to a weekly magazine. 

The main reasons for this were limitations in funding, lack of comic talent, ongoing exploration and trial, and the absence of major blockbuster comics.

Xia Yu, however, did not want to wait that long! His situation was vastly different from the previous *Zhiyin Animation* company.

He had ample funds and was not lacking in resources! The magazine's positioning was straightforward—just copy what worked! Distribution channels were well-established in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, with no competitor daring to claim the top spot.

As for blockbuster comics, there were plenty from Japan and China that he could use. The only limiting factor was talent. As long as he had talented comic creators, *Zhiyin Manke* would have a smooth path ahead.

Of course, because the circumstances were different, Xia Yu's development plan for *Zhiyin Manke* had significant changes.

He planned to launch directly as a weekly magazine rather than starting with a monthly or bi-weekly format. The weekly market was the largest and had the greatest influence, but it was also the most challenging!

In his previous life, *Zhiyin Manke* was serialized in four sections, but due to the scarcity of comic talent, Xia Yu planned to start differently. He intended to divide *Zhiyin Manke* into four thematic sections: "Cute," "Fantasy," "Sharp," and "Burning," with each section featuring a flagship comic. This would help establish a clear positioning for readers. Once they had enough strength and more comic materials, they could later split these into four separate weekly magazines.

In this way, *Zhiyin Manke* would become four separate comic magazines, leading to greater profits and a more intense competition with Japanese comics. After all, it's more thrilling to face multiple competitors than to fight alone.

If one day, *Zhiyin Manke*'s "Cute," "Fantasy," "Sharp," and "Burning" weekly magazines occupied the top four positions in Japanese comic magazines, it would be an exhilarating sight.

Being able to dominate the entire Japanese comic industry would be a tremendous challenge, but if achieved, *Zhiyin Animation* would be recorded in comic history, and the Japanese comic industry would be humiliated!

Besides this somewhat unrealistic goal, there was another important reason for dividing into four sections. Many famous Japanese comics emerged in the 1980s, some as early as 1981 or 1982. If there were only one comic magazine, it wouldn't be able to serialize all these stories. Xia Yu needed to quickly stake his claim!